Chapter 78

Trenchard rewarded himself with some time off. Between assignments from Simon and his own jobs, he had been going nonstop for months. He walked into the Lucky Dog Riverboat Casino and played the penny slots while he sized up the place.

The layout was typical with expensive slot machines in the front, table games in the middle, and penny slots at the back. Restaurants and passageways to hotel rooms were along the side areas.

Sam was not a gambler by nature, so he stuck to the penny slots all day. He had no current girlfriend since his previous companions had complained too much about his mysterious night work and chronic disappearances. Didn’t he understand that nights and weekends were supposed to be for them? Try as he might, he could not put women on the pedestals they desired. His attention was always diverted elsewhere. Besides, he had seen too many men work themselves to death supporting their families. Starting with his own father. He had loved his father and was heartbroken by his early demise. Once he processed what happened, he made a vow to himself that he would not live and die that way, no matter how much peer pressure he received to marry and start a family.

Judging by the number of people gambling at the machines and tables, he was not the only one who prioritized things other than family. Idly, he wondered about investing in a casino. It sure beat doing all the hard work himself, he thought. But he was realistic about it. Sure, it seemed like a license to print money. But the business was competitive, and some casinos lost money and closed up. Even the successful ones had to deal with employee theft and unruly guests.

Next, he viewed the sportsbook. Betting on sports was something he did not understand. One broken leg on a horse, and there goes your bet! And that was just an example. Injuries were completely unpredictable. As a professional, Sam worked to lower the risk factor in everything he did, and sports betting had too many variables.

With a sigh, he rose to leave. He had never seriously considered robbing a casino. There was too much security all over the place. Big winners were escorted out, so there was no opening there either. In the end, this was just a day off’s entertainment for him, nothing more. He was a workaholic by nature and never took more than a day or two before getting back down to business.

Leon Pace had the same mindset. Downtime was wasted time. There was always a business opportunity to plan or contacts to meet. The problem was he was no longer running a club with the constant action around him. He was simply a go-between for the organization. A bag man bringing payments in exchange for information. There was no wife or children to occupy his time either.

He sighed to himself. It could be worse. Cousin Mark was locked up for life. This was not uncommon. The minority community was full of people with relatives on the inside for long periods of time. But it was new to Leon. This was the first time someone that was close to him had been put away.

Feeling sorry for himself wouldn’t change anything. He needed more action, and it was time to go find it.

Alan Groosjean was at the opposite end of the spectrum. How he wished for things to slow down. But he had commitments. Finally back to work, he had a pile of backlogged assignments to process. After the Las Vegas debacle and the time missed on administrative leave, he had a long way to go to restore his reputation at city hall.

His secret handlers were all impatient for results. Sure, the feds prepared the information for him now. But he had to study all of it before the electronic transfer so he could answer potential questions from James or Simon. This did nothing to calm his nerves because one slip could result in the Spanish Inquisition.

Any downtime he had was spent alone at the Lucky Dog. He missed the wife and kids, but they were not ready for him to return. He had to serve his time in the doghouse (pun intended, he thought bitterly). But it was his own mess, and he had to work through it. At least James gave him a place to stay. He had no place else to go since his erstwhile girlfriends disappeared at the first sign of trouble.